The Life and Lies of a (Former) VILE Operative
by kittys3ction123
Summary: Summary inside the book, also on Wattpad.
1. Introduction

Hi, I'm **kittys3ction123** and this is my very first story, this is set in the year 2020 and it's been 3 years since the death of Black Sheep, and 3 years since the birth of Carmen Sandiego. Coach Brunt is still furious at Carmen for betraying family as the last cohort of V.I.L.E. graduate, another betrayal is the last thing the academy needs as the graduates prepare for their first capers. But the operative by the name of The Black Cheshire never had a lot of luck in life. She plans her caper with the others enthusiastically, planning for the moment she can prove her loyalty. But like she says, she's never had much luck in life as her loyalties are tested upon hearing the true name of VILE.

Updates every fortnight. Hopefully...

Excuse me if the timelines are a bit unclear I'm still figuring it out myself.

Excuse any grammar errors. Capers will be based off the old Where In The World is Carmen Sandiego episodes (and it's educational).


	2. Prologue

**_Prologue_**

The island was being evacuated and the faculty was standing at the entrance of the institution as a few stragglers were being herded out of the building, reluctant to leave the place they had called home for the past year. Cheshire was among them, looking solemnly out into the distance when she spotted the Faculty standing at the front of the academy. She looked over her shoulder, the Cleaners had gone from the rear of the group, they were sure that there weren't any people attempting to stay behind. Who would? The place was going to blow soon.

As the small group passed by where the Faculty was standing, Cheshire took the absence of the Cleaners as an opportunity to duck behind a pillar in time to catch snatches of conversation

"Have... forgotten... secrets... would certainly put the two of them at each other's throats?" Professor Maelstorm was saying.

Countess Cleo has joined the chat

"Imagine... payback Carmen Sandiego... Shadowsan... the truth."

Coach Brunt was smiling sinisterly as she spoke next

"...destroy... inside out."

Cheshire had heard enough, she ducked out again from behind the pillar to rejoin the group and not a moment too soon as they walked through the doors of their magnificent institution for the last time and proceeded onto a helicopter with the rest of her fellow classmates.

She spotted the faculty get into another helicopter and the Cleaners drove them away as the academy blew up in the background.

**Sorry it's so short, I'm still trying to improve my writing. Next chapter will be next week or in a fortnight. Follow my story for updates!**


	3. Chapter 1: Planning a Caper

**Author's Note: I'm assuming that the students will only truly graduate after their capers, Carmen won't be coming in until chapter 3, in the meantime, have an early chapter.**

Cheshire walked into the library hugging a few papers close to her chest. She looked around the room before letting out a sigh of relief and smiled as she spotted a few other girls and a boy waving at her from a far corner of the room.

Anyone who looked at them would have thought that they were students preparing for an exam and as they shifted their things to make room for Cheshire as she joined them at the table.

"About time you got here!" An operative by the name of Blade exclaimed as Cheshire plopped down on a chair opposite her.

"You gotta learn how to be on time girl!" Another girl, this time an brown ombre haired girl spoke up.

"Well, I apologise on Cheshire's behalf if she can't meet your high standards Sketcher." A strawberry-blond boy was leaning back in his seat, balancing on two chair legs, a smirk on his face.

"Shut up Liberty."

Liberty grinned wider upon Sketcher's annoyance, the two had a rivalry that had gone on from even before VILE that no one thoroughly understood.

"Well then," Cheshire had cleared her throat and placed the newspapers onto the table, Sketcher and Liberty had started an 'intense' staring contest across the table. "Shall we begin our planning."

"Hah! You blinked!" Sketcher slammed her hand onto the table and used her other hand to point as Liberty turned to look at Cheshire, causing Blade and Stardust (another girl I forgot to mention) to jump a bit and the few other people in the library to turn in their seat and shush them.

Sketcher sunk back into her seat, flushing slightly and Cheshire took everyone's silence as permission to continue with her talk.

"Well," she looked at everyone and dropped her voice to a whisper, "next week is the day, I've been digging around and I've found something we can use as for our first caper, look."

She pointed to a article that read, '**Hope Diamond on Display at The National Museum of Natural History.**'

"Woah, isn't that jewel supposed to be cursed?" Blade asked, looking at Cheshire across the table.

"What? You don't actually believe that curse, do you Blade?" Liberty grinned at her, Stardust rolled her eyes at him before she cleared her throat softly and said,

"The jewel is believed to have originated in India, where the larger stone was purchased in 1666 by French gem merchant as the **Tavernier Blue**. It was cut and yielded the French Blue (_**Le bleu de France**_), which Tavernier sold to King Louis XIV in 1668. Stolen in 1791, it was recut, with the largest section acquiring its "Hope" name when it appeared in the catalogue of a gem collection owned by a London banking family called 'Hope'. It was purchased in 1949 by New York gem merchant , who toured it for a number of years before giving it to the National Museum of Natural History of the United States in 1958, where it has since remained on permanent exhibition. The Hope Diamond has long been rumored to carry a curse, possibly due to agents trying to arouse interest in the stone. It was last reported to be insured for $250 million.." She faltered, as she realised everyone was looking at her, quite astounded she knew this much about the stone they were after. The tips of Stardust's ears turned a slight red, she was a lot more geeky then she let on.

After a couple of hours, which consisted of some bad puns on Liberty's part and eye rolls from everyone else, plus a whole lot of planning, they had sorted out their plans for the caper and were now packing up and getting ready to leave and go their separate ways, it had been decided that the operatives would all have to live in different quarters so not to arouse suspicion from the locals. Each operative would live with a partner, Cheshire had been paired with Stardust.

As they headed back down the street, Cheshire unconsciously lifted her hand to a chain around her neck and rubbed the charm hanging from it. The charm was in the shape of a merlion, with the head of a lion and body of a fish, she considered it her lucky charm and wore it everywhere, when she went on capers it would be tucked safely in her pocket. She was protective of it and it had become a joke among her friends so she always kept it in her sight, this was because she had caught Liberty trying to pickpocket her on a dare to steal it from her.

She sighed as she walked alongside Stardust, their apartment coming into view, whatever was ahead of her, whether it was her upcoming caper or any other disruptions, she would be ready.


	4. Chapter 2: I'm Ready

**Hello person reading this! Sorry I haven't updated in a while on this site, I might have been focusing on the version of this story that's on Wattpad too much... I'm still trying to figure out how to progress with this story so criticism about what I'm doing wrong and ideas on how to continue would be of great help. Hope you enjoy :) ~kittys3ction123**

_I'm ready,_ the famous last words.

After a full two weeks of planning via meetings at the nearby library and Skype, they were ready for their first caper. They were all at the entrance of the museum in which the Hope Diamond was being housed. It had closed several hours previously and it was nearing midnight.

"You guys ready? School's finally out, it's time to see whether all the painstaking planning paid off." Sketcher asked jokingly as she leaned against a wall of a building not far from the museum. Her face carried a smile but the fact that it didn't reach her eyes gave away her nervousness.

"Can we go now, everyone's gonna fall asleep soon." So it was, Stardust was looking extremely disgruntled as she attempted to keep her eyes open.

The cockiness of Liberty's voice put us at ease though, even if none of us would admit it. It was comforting to know that some things wouldn't change, like Liberty's overconfidence.

Stardust yawned, she was definitely _not_ a night owl.

"Can we just get going before I fall asleep?" She yawned again.

"Yep, sooner the better so that the lady can get her beauty sleep right?"

"Shut up Liberty." His statement was met with groans and eye rolls by all his teammates.

As the operatives took up their positions at the museum, Cheshire climbed a tree and proceeded to the roof, careful not to be caught in the view of the security cameras. She made it to the roof, watching as Liberty disabled the cameras.

Sighing, she stood there for a few seconds, relishing the rush of wind as she opened the window and slipped into the building, she ducked behind a pillar when she heard someone coming in, _what were they doing? Sketcher was supposed to be in charge of knocking out the security guards, yet she was nowhere in sight. _Cheshire frowned, this wasn't part of their plan.

Cheshire glanced outside the window in time to see Stardust blowing some of her sleeping powder formula in the direction of some guards, reaching down and opening the pouch she had on her belt, Cheshire got a black cloth and tied it around the lower half of her face to cover her mouth and nose in case any of the sleeping power came in her direction.

"I'm ready."

She shot out from behind the pillar, coming to a halt in front of a glass box. Inside of it, shimmering brightly, was the Hope Diamond. Cheshire gasped in amazement, it was stunning, _wouldn't it be horrible to hide its beauty from the rest of the world? _She mentally shook her head, she couldn't let her teammates down. She tried to lift the box just as Blade came into the room.

"Right on time Blade, help me out here." Cheshire grinned, not that it mattered, seeing that she still had her mask on.

Nodding, Blade helped Cheshire lift the box and lower it out of the window, where Stardust had been positioned.

It would have been easier to simply take the necklace but Sketcher has been skeptical about touching the gem, believing it might lower their chances of securing their target. So, they had compromised on taking it _with_ the box.

This had been proved an increasingly regrettable decision as they moved the glass case slowly to prevent shattering the glass. As she watched the case dropped slowly to the ground, she found that her patience was running quite thin. As it touched the ground she leaped out of the window after and landed lightly next to the box.

Straightening up in time to see Blade jump out the window too, she felt a great sense of achievement as she gave the thumbs up to everyone else.

"I'll handle it."

Cheshire pulled at her gloves before reaching into the glass case and lifted up the diamond, glittering brightly on its chain, she took a moment to admire the gem before slipping it into a small wooden box that had a cushioning in it. Sketcher and Liberty joined the group soon after, armed with identical wooden boxes. (To make it harder for any _people _tried to take the gem from them, the similar boxes would confuse them.)

Cheshire passed the box she was carrying over to Liberty and he passed his box to her, she nodded, the box she knew contained a duplicate of the diamond in case there were any... complications... and they all began to run towards their pickup point where the Cleaners would be picking them up.

Suddenly, Cheshire heard a rustle from a nearby bush and something told her that it wasn't a squirrel.

"We're being watched," she mouthed to Stardust and Stardust's eyes widened in alarm as she began to speed up to catch up with the others.

Cheshire was about to set off too when a net and two figures emerged from the bush, trapping her in the net. She stumbled into a tree and fell to the ground, dropping the wooden box she had been clutching protectively. She looked around and spotted Liberty and the others getting into a car before driving off. Her feelings sank, she was going to be alone this time.

She began reached for her pocket knife in her left pocket but to her dismay, found that she had either left it back at her apartment or...

_Liberty... I'm going to murder you!_

But even her anger couldn't distract her from the fact that she was in **big** trouble.

"This was not part of the plan.

She pressed a button on one of her gloves, sharp claw-like spikes emerged from one of her gloves, she preferred to use these claws only as last resorts but, _drastic times call for drastic measures_, she dreaded the possibility of having to shred someone's face off.

"Ohhh, this was _definitely_ **not** part of the plan." She groaned, putting her face in her hands.

**Another chapter down, lots more to go! And exactly 999 words!**


End file.
